Strange and Terrible Things
by CassidyRose
Summary: Formerly 'A Strange Friendship', reworked and being continued. / Raven is captured by Slade for a strange and terrible reason. An old promise is revealed, and there may be more to things than meet the eye. / RavenXSlade Rated M for later chapters.


Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans and I make no money from this.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story before its update, and to all who are going to review. I do plan to update this story by the end of the month, but I cannot promise regular updates. Feel free to review and encourage me.

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The air was thick and laced with tension, emanating for the most part from the prisoner currently bound and silent. Her head hung low, shoulders pressed high and tight beside her neck, as much as the restraints at her wrists would allow. The only echoing sound in the room was her breathing, coming quick and heavy. Her struggles had proved useless.

Raven still could not figure out what exactly had happened. Her only memory of her capture was that of a sharp voice speaking in a language long forgotten, and then darkness.

Now, seated before her frighteningly calm captor, with arms and legs bound to a chair, it was all she could do to hold in the rage that was threatening to burst forth and destroy everything within the next hundred miles. That would be counterproductive.

The captor in question broke through her concentration as he spoke, though Raven deliberately chose to not hear whatever he had said. She allowed her eyes to travel up and lock with the one eye revealed by Slade's mask. It gave her no guess as to his expression, hiding all emotion with just one simple sheet of metal.

With a hiss, Raven gave another harsh tug at her restraints, a pointless movement that only served to bruise her pale appendages further.

"Don't talk to me." The hostile demand issued from barely parted lips, backed up by eyes that had narrowed to slits and practically _oozed_ hatred.

"You are in no position to be handing out orders, my dear." Slade's voice was as smooth and chill-inducing as every other time. Except it was worse now, with a sickening smugness lacing throughout.

"I can do as I damn well please." The dark energy the girl controlled flared around her, begging to be released. As badly as she wanted to, Raven was not confident in that moment that she could hold herself back to merely escaping. She wanted to kill this man, this _monster_. Not only that, she wanted to _destroy_ him until there was nothing left but a shivering husk, living only by the barest flicker of life within.

It was this desire that frightened her late at night, when she could feel her Rage battling for even the slightest bit of freedom.

The man walked towards the bound girl and continued to pace a circle around her, stopping directly behind the chair and out of Raven's sight. He chuckled darkly, as if sensing the inner struggle Raven was having, leaning forward to speak directly next to her face. She flinched involuntarily, almost feeling the cold metal of the mask against her heated skin.

"Really, Raven, you should know. In my home, we practice _manners_." The word was a hiss, and yet still there was a disturbing amount of amusement in the tone.

Raven growled and pulled harder at her bindings, ignoring entirely the pain that poked spikes into her skull with each new bruise and cut made by the metal shackles.

"You are the _last_ person I want to hear about _manners_ from. You are nothing but a monster."

A dramatic sigh released itself beside Raven's face, and she imagined she could almost feel the air brushing her cheek. It must have been the fear.

"Now, I really didn't want to do this but it seems you've given me no choice." His voice had changed, adopting a new darkness.

Raven heard him straighten up, stepping back around to her front line of vision. Without giving her a second to react, he placed his palm directly over the middle of her forehead and spoke. Echoing and horrendous, it was not his voice that spilled from behind the mask, but the voice of a demon. The girl screamed as streaking lines of agony caressed her brain in an endless dance of despair, stripping and binding from her something that felt like her soul.

She did not realize it was her own screaming until the voices suddenly ceased and Slad removed his hand from her head. It tilted forward limply, feeling full of cotton and emptiness in contrast to her raw throat.

"What the _hell_ did you just do?" In a voice rough from screaming, Raven did all she could to sound demanding of an answer and stay conscious at the same time.

Slade replied simply. "That was merely a measure to guarantee my own safety in the future."

Growling deep in her aching chest, Raven chose destruction, releasing the frail hold she had had on her powers. One long second passed before she screamed again, resulting in nothing happening.

Nothing.

Raven breathed slowly, closing her eyes and doing her very best to center herself. "How did you get that incantation? Where did you get it?"

"From an old friend you might be familiar with."

Raven froze, her mind instantly jumping to the one place that particular spell could have originated to such a powerful degree. Slade let out his dark imitation of a laugh and nodded once as if in answer to her thoughts.

"Yes, my dear, I assume from that stricken expression, you know exactly to whom I am referring."

Raven pushed away the nausea building in her chest, forcing words out.

"My father is dead."

"I received this incantation long before you were born, when your father promised me a bride in return for a certain favor I performed."

The girl slowly came to what he meant, unable to hide the growing horror on her face. Slade leaned in close to her, nearly nose to nose.

"You were made for me, Raven."

Raven couldn't move, frozen in denial. Her voice was all that shook as she responded.

"You're lying."

"No, dear, I'm not."

"You have to be!" She screamed at him, the rage she had fought so hard to control, now coming to control her. Thrashing in her chair, she shrieked until her voice was long gone, wrists and ankles bloody and swelling around the cuffs that held them in place.

Slade watched with his hands behind his back, his mask allowing him an air of impassivity.

She finally fell still, panting like she had just outrun a thousand demons. She had no voice, and yet the whisper somehow reached Slade's ears.

"Release me."

Slade moved closer to her and stopped.

"No."

Raven's eyes darted up to his mask in anger, without any energy remaining to sate the fire behind them. He continued to speak with an arrogance that Raven wanted to carve out of him slowly, just to hear him scream.

"You will learn to behave like a civilized being. I do not tolerate animals in my home." He turned as if to leave her. "A drone will return when I deem you have earned the right to move. I suggest you learn quickly."

Without another word, Slade strode away through a rectangle of light revealed briefly as a door, leaving Raven to fight with her rage and her sorrow.

She could not help but realize that no matter which wins, she will still lose.


End file.
